Comparing BC’s provincial parties and their post-secondary promises

The 2017 BC provincial election is nearing and it’s going to be close. In a recent op-ed in the Vancouver Sun, George Davison, president of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC, wrote:

Students are struggling, and we need to be talking about it. These are the people who will propel our province’s economy. Study after study shows that education and income are correlated. Education is a path to jobs. It follows that public policy should support education, because if more people are employed and earning higher wages, they’ll contribute more. But our province has been chronically underfunding education, using a lens that is short-sighted and biased.

We’re hoping for and voting for a government that will invest in people to grow our economy. It’s important to keep costs for students and families down, and to keep students in their home communities, if that’s where they want to study, by offering a diversity of courses across the province.

On the May 9, how you vote in the provincial election will shape post-secondary skills and training over the next four years.

Making an informed choice as a voter isn’t always easy. Even when you attend all-candidates meetings, ask questions, and study the party platforms, it can be difficult to read between the lines to know what the parties are really promising. We produced this guide to voting for post-secondary education to make it a little easier for you.

Download the PDF below to see what the parties plan to do for post-secondary education, if elected, and then make sure to pledge to vote this election.